Vegas retail development on track

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

When the Fashion Show mall expands over the next two years, it will be more reflective of its name, a company executive says.

Jerome Smalley, senior vice president of the Rouse Co., parent company of the Howard Hughes Corp. and owner of the Las Vegas Strip shopping mall, said the centerpiece of the revamped center would be a massive hall with a runway for fashion shows, media events and product introductions.

In addition, there will be a 400-square-foot video wall to receive broadcasts of significant fashion events from all over the world.

Smalley offered details of the Fashion Show's 1 million-square-foot renovation at the Wednesday 2001 Real Estate Trends presentation, co-sponsored by Colliers International, In Business Las Vegas, XO Communications, Harsch Investment Properties LLC, Restripo Consulting Group LLC, Bank of America and realcentric.

In Business is a Greenspun Media Group publication owned by the Greenspun family, which also owns the Las Vegas Sun.

Smalley also said Columbia, Md.-based Rouse is negotiating with retailers to lease space in both the Fashion Show mall and Rouse's planned regional shopping mall, the Summerlin Center Mall, to be built at Charleston Boulevard and the Beltway.

It's common for the owner of multiple retail centers to offer "package deals" to its customers.

Smalley detailed plans for seven of the eight anchor stores at Fashion Show. The highlight: The opening of Nevada's first Nordstrom department store. The Seattle-based retailer plans a 180,000-square-foot operation at Fashion Show.

Other new arrivals will be a 150,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's home store and a 128,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor store.

Other anchors will expand or completely revamp their existing presence at the mall. Macy's will develop a 200,000-square-foot store, replacing the existing 136,000-square-foot store. Saks Fifth Avenue will double its store size to 150,000 square feet.

Remodeling is planned by Neiman-Marcus, which will have a 180,000-square-foot store, and Robinsons-May, which will have a 200,000-square-foot operation. The eighth anchor will be Dillard's, a new addition to the mall.

Smalley said there would be 120 new small shops in 200,000 square feet added to the store when the addition is completed in fall 2003. The first of the new stores will begin opening a year earlier.

Many of the new stores, he said, would be categorized in the luxury sector. Others will emphasize children's apparel and home furnishings to appeal to tourist and conventioneer shoppers.

Parking at the mall also will be improved, Smalley said. Parking will double to 3,700 spaces and there will be nine valet parking points -- each of them accessible from any valet station in the mall.

The mall will add two or three new restaurants and three or four new cafe bistros. A third-floor food court will overlook the Strip.

Matt Bear, vice president of Colliers International and a retail expert, said Rouse is positioning itself to compete for the same sales figures generated at three other major Strip retail centers.

Bear said the top figure in the country is commanded by the Forum Shops at Caesars, which averages sales of $1,200 per square foot per year. The Canal Shoppes at the Venetian has sales of $900 to $1,000 per square foot per year, while the retail newcomer, Desert Passage, at the Aladdin hotel-casino, has recorded about $700 per square foot since its August opening.

Those sales figures allow mall managers to command high rent prices -- about $100 to $300 per square foot per year. By comparison, Bear said most suburban malls charge between $25 and $100 per square foot per year.

Bear said the shopping experience in Las Vegas is part of a changing dynamic in tourism and that visitors are willing to spend more for accommodations, meals, shopping and entertainment.

"It used to be that the average visitor would stay in a cheap room, gamble and eat at a buffet when they came to Las Vegas," Bear said. "Now, they're staying at a $200 room, they gamble -- that's the one constant -- and they spend a couple hundred dollars for a meal."

Smalley said his company continues to analyze the effect the Internet has on mall sales. He said most retailers are conscious that they have to have a catalog and Internet presence as well as a brick-and-mortar storefront in order to compete so that customers "can click in, walk in or phone in."

Addressing the office real estate sector, John Kilduff, president of American Nevada Corp., described how his company is adapting to changing market demands by offering numerous amenities in the office space it is developing at the Beltway and Green Valley Parkway.

American Nevada is also exploring the development of residential locations tied to its office and commercial developments in an "urban village" setting, Kilduff said.

Based on successes with the 600-employee Ford Credit center, Kilduff said the company also is adding employee amenities in new office complexes. Features include gyms, showers, large cafeterias and kitchens, on-site child care facilities and "smart building" technology that includes work station temperature control features as well as fiber-optic telecommunications lines.

American Nevada Corp. is owned by the Greenspun family, which also publishes the Las Vegas Sun.